Addicted to Koch
March 27, 2014 - by
Thomas Mills at PoliticsNC riled up some Democrats when he questioned the strategy of going after the Koch brothers.
I have the same question. Is this a classic case of chasing the cape and missing the matador?
A national poll this week showed that half of all Americans don’t even know who the Koch brothers are. So why would voters care?
The Kochs are a fixation of the political class. But for most voters, all billionaires look alike, all politics looks crooked, corrupt and controlled by the rich and powerful, and both parties are guilty.
Rather than waste money on this heavy lift, Mills said, Senator Hagan and Democratic super PACs should focus on Thom Tillis:
“…(T)he guilt-by-association strategy seems so obviously flawed that watching the resources go into it is disheartening. In North Carolina, we’ve built a cottage industry attacking Art Pope and wrapping Republican policies and candidates around him. So far, it’s succeeded in getting us the first Republican governor in 20 years and a Republican legislature with veto proof majorities. Now, the Washington Democrats are adopting the model….
“The Democrats have taken a defensive posture with a reactive response. In essence, they’ve ceded the political agenda to the Koch Brothers and the Republicans. They should be attacking GOP policies and candidates, not GOP funders.
“In North Carolina, they are nationalizing the election while ignoring fertile ground in the state. If they need to wrap Thom Tillis around something, wrap him around the legislature. Under his leadership, they’ve cut funding to public schools and universities, limited women’s access to health, tried to disenfranchise minorities and young people and raised taxes on our poorest workers. There are issues that will motivate the base and persuade the middle. Use them.
“And consistently, Tillis has tried to be something that he’s not. When he’s talking to country clubbers, he’s a moderate. When he’s talking to Tea Partiers, he’s a conservative. He says he graduated from the University of Maryland, but he didn’t. He even says in his latest commercial that he was a “partner at IBM,” when IBM is a corporation not a law firm or accounting agency. And he doesn’t even mention serving as speaker of the house. He’s just another phony politician. Expose him, not the Kochs. He’s the one on the ballot.”
Addicted to Koch
March 27, 2014/
Thomas Mills at PoliticsNC riled up some Democrats when he questioned the strategy of going after the Koch brothers.
I have the same question. Is this a classic case of chasing the cape and missing the matador?
A national poll this week showed that half of all Americans don’t even know who the Koch brothers are. So why would voters care?
The Kochs are a fixation of the political class. But for most voters, all billionaires look alike, all politics looks crooked, corrupt and controlled by the rich and powerful, and both parties are guilty.
Rather than waste money on this heavy lift, Mills said, Senator Hagan and Democratic super PACs should focus on Thom Tillis:
“…(T)he guilt-by-association strategy seems so obviously flawed that watching the resources go into it is disheartening. In North Carolina, we’ve built a cottage industry attacking Art Pope and wrapping Republican policies and candidates around him. So far, it’s succeeded in getting us the first Republican governor in 20 years and a Republican legislature with veto proof majorities. Now, the Washington Democrats are adopting the model….
“The Democrats have taken a defensive posture with a reactive response. In essence, they’ve ceded the political agenda to the Koch Brothers and the Republicans. They should be attacking GOP policies and candidates, not GOP funders.
“In North Carolina, they are nationalizing the election while ignoring fertile ground in the state. If they need to wrap Thom Tillis around something, wrap him around the legislature. Under his leadership, they’ve cut funding to public schools and universities, limited women’s access to health, tried to disenfranchise minorities and young people and raised taxes on our poorest workers. There are issues that will motivate the base and persuade the middle. Use them.
“And consistently, Tillis has tried to be something that he’s not. When he’s talking to country clubbers, he’s a moderate. When he’s talking to Tea Partiers, he’s a conservative. He says he graduated from the University of Maryland, but he didn’t. He even says in his latest commercial that he was a “partner at IBM,” when IBM is a corporation not a law firm or accounting agency. And he doesn’t even mention serving as speaker of the house. He’s just another phony politician. Expose him, not the Kochs. He’s the one on the ballot.”